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The second day of the second month of the lunar calendar is a traditional festival in Chinese folklore. As the saying goes, "After the second of February, the whole New Year is over." In my memory, this is a day to greet the old and welcome the new, and to pin people's good wishes...
I remember that before dawn on the second day of February, My Grandmother and Mother got up. Go to the kitchen to bring out the green ash that was plucked from the stove the night before, first sprinkle around the root of the wall, and chant "On the second of February, sprinkle green ash, scorpions and worms die in piles", saying that this is how our children play at the root of the wall, even if there are these pests, they will not be hurt. Then carry the grass ash around the barn, grandma and mother shoveled some grass ash in the courtyard and next to the granary, and the people walked with their hands shaking, and as they walked, the grass and wood ash drew circles on the ground. Large snare small circle, small circle three circles, large five circles, single around not double. These circles are the so-called "hoarding" or "warehouse", after the warehouse is surrounded, the beans, wheat, and sorghum in the house are taken out and placed reverently in the middle of the warehouse, and some of the warehouses are deliberately sprinkled on the periphery, and Grandma said that it symbolizes the great harvest of crops, and the grain has been so much that the cocoons and buckets cannot be held. The big warehouse and the small warehouse must be painted with a hoarding ladder, and Grandma said that the grain harvest is abundant, a lot, the general hoarding can not be lowered, to be raised, with a ladder to go up. I remember that in front of the main wall of our yard in front of the "incense table", Grandma and Mother would always surround a large warehouse, five circles, the center of which was dug up and buried with coins, Grandma said it was "money warehouse"...
After the warehouse, Grandma would also take a wooden stick, walk to the gate, knock on the "door pillow" at the door, and say, "February 2, knock on the pillow, gold and silver roll home." After doing this, it is time to cook, and at that time, our custom here was to eat dumplings, which were wrapped in the afternoon of the first day. The cauldron in the kitchen burned with the sound of the bellows pushing and pulling, and with the sound of firecrackers "crackling", the dumplings were also out of the pot, and Grandma would first put a bowl, praying that the ancestors and gods would be used first... However, before eating dumplings, Grandma will let each of us eat a piece of flower cake, which is left over from the New Year, Grandma said that she ate flower cake on this day, good luck, and climbed higher step by step. After eating, our children will load a pocket of "feed beans", go out to exchange food with friends, the more the number of families, the better, "feed beans", that is, fried soybeans, also called "scorpion claws", salty, sweet. Eating said that it can avoid the "scorpion", eat the scorpion's claws, it can not come out to sting people, said to eat enough scorpion claws of the seven families, good health, can stay away from evil things, live for a long time. These "scorpion claws" were also fried a few days before February 2. On the second day of February, I remember that my mother would also use sticky rice noodles and sweet potatoes to mash and put white sugar fried rice cakes.
At the beginning of February, the second dragon looks up, and the spring returns to the earth, which is a good time for farming, and the land needs to be moistened by rain. The dragon is the master of wind and rain in China's traditional culture for thousands of years, as the saying goes, "the dragon does not look up and the sky does not rain", so "the dragon looks up" is a symbol of recovery and auspiciousness. I remember when I was a kid, everyone chose to shave their hair on this day in the hope that there would be a good sign. When my sister and I were young, we both tied two long braids, and after eating, my grandmother and mother washed our hair and cut bangs for the sake of auspiciousness. The younger brother will also be shaved into a small flat head, stained with a bit of Ruixiang breath... Grandma said that on the second day of February, there are also many taboos, before the sun comes out, you can't draw water from the well, for fear of "angering the dragon king of the well"; you can't take needles and sew things, for fear of stabbing the "dragon's eye"; women do not comb their hair in the house, and they are not allowed to use long ropes, so as not to fall on the house with snakes, scorpions, worms, etc. Can't drink noodles, noodles are dragon whiskers, can't drink millet porridge, millet is dragon seeds...
With the passage of time and the passage of time, these old folk customs have been handed down less and less, and only a few elderly people in the countryside remember it. And now, Grandma is gone, the mother is here, in February this year, the second lady will still return to the old house to surround the warehouse, and the second dragon in February looks up, which means that the wind and rain are smooth, and the grain is abundant! Bless our Chinese land Guotai Min'an!
About the author: Wang Xiaohui, pen name Peaceful Ruhua, works for Yuncheng Tobacco Company. Member of the 15th CPPCC National Committee of Yuncheng County. He is a member of the Shandong Provincial Writers Association, a member of the Shandong Prose Literature Association, a member of the Heze Writers Association, a member of the Heze Poetry Society, and a member of the Heze Calligraphers Association.
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